Spring 2020 Starts Now –According to our server’s clock it is now 11:50 p.m., EDT, March 19, which means the vernal equinox just happened and Spring 2020 has begun.
Equinox is Latin for “equal night.” Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the Sun rises and sets due east and west, explains The Old Farmers Almanac. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.
Vernal comes from the Latin vernalis which means spring.
I read on AccuWeather’s website that we apparently passed the day and night of equal length 4 days ago, though. I remember a similar discrepancy with the winter solstice, that the latest sunrise wasn’t on the solstice, but 5 or 6 days later. It has to do with variations in the Earth’s rotation and orbit.
Who ya gonna trust? AccuWeather or the Old Farmer’s Almanac?